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Listen up men: Prevent buttock loss!

November 19, 2013

Men have always suffered the indignities of hair loss, but the Australian Financial Review suggests if you're over 40, you may also be a victim of buttock loss.

Not every man suffers from loss of buttock volume. It is more likely in men who spend their days sitting or, worse, sitting tilted forward over a keyboard. To add insult, your buttock fullness may migrate forward to your belly if it doesn't just 'flat out' disappear.

As you age it's natural to lose rump fat. The problem occurs when you also lose rump muscle. Here's how it happens: many men concentrate on upper body exercise and neglect to exercise the lower trunk, i.e., you work your arms and abdominals, build core strength but then forget about your lower core.

The cure
Do not suffer from what the news source calls "gluteal amnesia." The gluteal group, made up of three gluteal muscles in each cheek, forms a powerful muscular girdle that keeps the pelvis stable and moves the body forward. You will not work these muscles by walking, running or doing planks and crunches.

Specific exercises strengthen the buttock muscles but to be effective, these moves must be done in a way that is technically correct:
• Squats, lunges, hip extensions and bridging.
• Sideways walking, single leg exercises up against a wall.
• Regularly pulling up your legs while driving or engaged in some other passive activity.

Statistics show that men are becoming increasingly invested in the appearance of their buttocks. According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS), last year men accounted for 6.2 per cent of cosmetic buttocks procedures. Some 15 years ago the figure was 2.2 per cent.

The cheapest, easiest option is to buy padded bottom-enhancing underpants or trunks that provide lift with hidden support straps to boost the rear profile. But think twice before you take an easy out.

Work your gluteals to maintain your body's health
Gluteal muscles protect the back and lower limbs from injury, hold the pelvis steady, keep it aligned with the legs and torso and maintain erect posture for the upper torso. If they don't do this job adequately, the lower back muscles have to overwork and can become painful. These same muscles also travel around the hip and attach to the thigh bones, keeping them steady and, in turn, keeping the knees steady and preventing them from becoming injured.

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As more and more men seemingly flock to hop on the beauty bandwagon year-over-year, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that more of them are seeking out a variety of cosmetic procedures to enhance or rejuvenate their looks.

Today, it is fairly common for men to invest in aesthetic self-care without kicking up societal judgment. The stigma seems to have diminished significantly. Scientific advances provide a myriad of nonsurgical solutions for our most pervasive beauty woes, and it’s refreshing to see more men dipping their (pedicured) toe into the world of aesthetic procedures.

Being a parent, it is my responsibility to teach my kids to be confident, and that confidence isn’t entirely based on one’s outward appearance. I am personally not a proponent of aesthetic plastic surgery for minors, but as a father of boys, I feel very empathetic towards boys and young men with gynecomastia. The treatment, (breast reduction surgery), is the only aesthetic surgical procedure that I will perform on children.